Steven Taylor is understood to feel badly betrayed by Newcastle United and now believes he has no future at the club. The former England Under-21 centre-half had his jaw broken in an alleged altercation with a team-mate, striker Andy Carroll last Sunday. Taylor, who spent two nights in hospital and required surgery, has been dismayed by the support Carroll is receiving both from within St James' Park and from Newcastle's supporters.

It seems Chris Hughton, Newcastle's manager – who resolutely refuses to comment on the incident – accepts the two Geordies can no longer work together and has decided the centre-forward is the player he wants to keep.

Carroll, currently on bail following an alleged nightclub assault and facing a crown court appearance on an actual bodily harm charge at the end of next month, was controversially selected to play at Doncaster last Tuesday night.

After Carroll scored the winner, Hughton – who rarely singles out players – praised his contribution. By Thursday night Carroll was photographed out on the town in Manchester at a rap concert, sporting bandages on both hands.

Back home in Newcastle Taylor was feeding through a straw and turning down requests to photograph his newly wired jaw. Those close to the player, arguably Newcastle's best defender, do not buy the view that he provoked Carroll in what is thought to have been an argument over a woman.

Carroll is thought to be part of a powerful dressing-room clique that Taylor has never really fitted into. Kevin Nolan is a key figure inside St James' Park and, significantly, the midfielder now shares an agent with Carroll. Taylor, meanwhile, was perhaps always too close to Hughton's predecessor Alan Shearer for the former Tottenham coach's liking. Taylor has only 14 months left on his contract and Newcastle are unhappy about the prospect of him leaving on a Bosman transfer in the summer of 2011. Selling him now would give them the chance to avoid doing so.

With a return to the Premier League now almost within touching distance, Hughton – whose side are at home to Nottingham Forest tomorrow night in a key Championship promotion clash – does not want either to disturb the dressing room's political power balance or risk jeopardising results by dropping a striker currently on a hot scoring streak.

Even so Carroll's continued involvement appears a thoroughly depressing victory for pragmatism over principles and Hughton has surely been diminished by the entire sorry affair.

Newcastle's manager won a UN commendation for anti-apartheid campaigning but as Carroll waved insouciantly to fans at Doncaster it seemed Hughton had suddenly lost sight of the bigger picture.

After doing brilliantly to keep Newcastle top of the table this season, he now looks weak and it is not impossible that this affair could yet spark a chain of events that may lead to him being replaced by a manager such as Mark Hughes or Steve McClaren next season.

Certainly in some uncannily prophetic comments a few weeks ago, Shearer spelt out a message his successor as Newcastle's manager should have been making plain. "Andy has a lot of talent but he needs to improve in almost every area," said Shearer. "There are also one or two things going on off the pitch he has to sort out. When you're in his position you can't keep making mistakes."

It is only thanks to Taylor's desire not to damage his home-town team's promotion bid that he declined to take part in the police investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile Hughton's handling of the affair raises questions as to whether Newcastle really have the right manager for the long term.